TV Recap: Castle 7-2 - Montreal

There was still a pall hanging over last night’s episode.  They were working on getting the old magic back, but it wasn’t quite there yet.  Fortunately, the characters knew it, too, so I think the writers were doing it on purpose.

Of course, since Castle was pursuing his own sub-plot in a lot of ways, that cut down a little on the quips and fun.  I’m not saying it was a bad episode, just that it wasn’t quite a normal episode.

We do have a murder mystery of the week – a body in the river.  This body turns out to be the CEO of a toy company.  His wife had reported him missing on Friday when he didn’t return home from the movies.  He’s been working late and under a lot of stress – at least according to his wife.  This stress started when their dog died.  The VP at the toy company and the victim’s assistant both say that he’s been leaving work early.  And on his time off, there is no trail at all.  No phone calls, no credit charges.  Nothing.

The detectives find a set of keys in the false bottom of his drawer.  And they get a trail to the name of a woman.  Classic signs of an affair, right?  They show up at the woman’s apartment to find her with her throat slashed on her bed.

And then she moves.

Turns out she is a makeup artist and the CEO had come to her for help turning into an old man.  When they start circulating that picture, they get a trail to an apartment he’d rented with a dog inside.  He also regularly bought food from a Chinese place six subway stops from this second apartment.

That restaurant is just down the street from one of his company’s toy warehouses.  When they show the picture to the employees, they recognize him as the new janitor – the janitor who had been snooping around through invoices.

At this point, I knew what was going on, but it took the dog reacting to a cop bringing in drugs from a bust for our characters to know.  Suddenly, Castle has a wild theory that actually makes sense – the CEO was trying to prove that drugs were being smuggled through his company.  In fact, his dog had accidentally overdosed, and that’s how he’d found out.  But someone else figured out why he was snooping and killed him for it.

And the killer is?  The CEO’s assistant who is the mastermind behind the entire drug ring.

Meanwhile, Castle is determined to figure out what happened to him.  During a TV interview where the interviewer seems certain he just “disappeared” for the publicity, Castle offers a $250K reward to anyone with proof showing where he was for the last two months.  He gives out the precinct’s number, which does not make Gates happy, but the calls do start coming in.

They are bogus, including the one from the guy who tracks down Castle’s private line.  That guy says he was held with Castle, which gets Castle excited until Castle realizes this man thinks they were both kidnapped by aliens.  (And I love the fact that this is a theory Castle would love to spin until he is the subject of the mystery.)

However, one couple does come forward with real evidence.  They’d been on their honeymoon, and the groom had snapped a picture of the bride with Castle and the mystery man from the trailer in it.  They were talking on the steps of a bank in Montreal.  Alexis wonders if the key sown into Castle’s clothes came from that bank’s safety deposit box.  Figuring that’s as good place to look, Castle and Alexis head up there and manage to check out the box.  It opens, and they find three envelops inside, one each for Beckett, Martha, and Alexis.  Each contains a memory card that is essentially Castle saying goodbye if something had happened to him.

Castle and Alexis return home, but the digital media expert with the police is able to get an outline of some buildings in the window behind Castle from the videos.  They even manage to get a match to a specific address in Montreal, and Castle heads up there alone.

Once in the room, he is confronted by the man from the trailer.  He tells Castle to leave it alone, that Castle had asked them to erase his memory.  And as proof, he hints at an event when Castle was 11 that he has tone no one else.  This event, hinted at only, is why Castle became a mystery writer.  Castle believes him and leaves, but he is still shaken as to what this means and what he might have done or been a part of.

Back home, Beckett does her best to comfort Castle about this latest mystery.  Castle is ready to get married the next morning, but Beckett isn’t.  They need time to get over this before they marry, but she does still want to marry him.  (And I absolutely agree with her on this matter.)  They will revisit the subject in a month.  Hm, can we say November sweeps anyone?

When the subject of why Castle became a mystery writer was mentioned, I flashed back to season one where Beckett asked him that question and he made up a story.  Interestingly, it was from his childhood.  I wonder if they will go that way or not.

And I am also taking it as a personal shout out that the safety deposit box was #38 since I use carstairs38 as my internet log in lots of places, including Twitter where I link up my recaps and tag official Castle accounts.  (Don’t even consider pointing out any flaws in this.  I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!!!)

I was glad they didn’t follow their normal pattern of forgetting any ongoing story for episodes at a time.  It’s nice to at least get the next piece of the puzzle.  I don’t expect a true resolution any time soon, and I expect not to get another clue for a few weeks yet, but I’m glad we got more.

As I said at the beginning, the show still feels a little off because of this huge mystery surrounding Castle.  Hopefully, they can get the chemistry back realistically soon.  I do like how they aren’t rushing things yet, however.  It feels realistic to me.

There was some fun along the way, like Castle and the toys at the beginning of the episode and the giant keyboard at the end.  That leads me to believe that we will get the right mix back as the characters get back to normal themselves.

What did you think of this episode?  Hit me up with your thoughts and any theories on what happened to Castle in the comments.